Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) Shares Down 1.7% – Should You Sell?

Applied Digital Co. (NASDAQ:APLD)’s share price was down 1.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $7.87 and last traded at $7.96. Approximately 5,825,423 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 76% from the average daily volume of 24,066,564 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.10.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on APLD shares. Craig Hallum lifted their price target on shares of Applied Digital from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their price target on shares of Applied Digital from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $10.00 price target on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Northland Securities lifted their target price on shares of Applied Digital from $12.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Compass Point started coverage on shares of Applied Digital in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $10.00 target price on the stock. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, Applied Digital currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $12.11.

Applied Digital Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $8.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $7.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77. The stock has a market cap of $1.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.62 and a beta of 4.78.

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 14th. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $63.87 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $62.41 million. Applied Digital had a negative net margin of 127.86% and a negative return on equity of 117.67%. The company’s revenue was up 51.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.05) EPS. On average, analysts expect that Applied Digital Co. will post -0.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Applied Digital

In related news, Director Richard N. Nottenburg sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.85, for a total transaction of $177,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 342,923 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,034,868.55. This represents a 5.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Wes Cummins sold 200,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.20, for a total transaction of $1,840,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3,875,955 shares in the company, valued at $35,658,786. The trade was a 4.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 270,000 shares of company stock worth $2,477,000. Company insiders own 11.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Digital

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 113.8% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,404,313 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,649,000 after purchasing an additional 2,344,572 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 48.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,061,160 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,258,000 after purchasing an additional 1,002,862 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 14.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,337,267 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,282,000 after purchasing an additional 286,852 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 100.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,798,431 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,740,000 after purchasing an additional 899,138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royce & Associates LP raised its stake in shares of Applied Digital by 1.4% during the third quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 1,132,140 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,340,000 after purchasing an additional 15,763 shares during the last quarter. 65.67% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Applied Digital Company Profile

Applied Digital Corporation designs, develops, and operates datacenters in North America. Its datacenters provide digital infrastructure solutions to the high-performance computing industry. The company also provides artificial intelligence cloud services, high performance computing datacenter hosting, and crypto datacenter hosting services.